As Long As It Takes
by ArtemisPhantom
Summary: AU High School fic. Derek Morgan is the weedy new kid halfway through Junior year, who meets Spencer Reid; a genius having an existential crisis. They join forces, but can a relationship based on dark secrets ever last? MxR slash pairing, eventual smut.


[A/N]: Bonsoir everyone!  
This is new territory for me; I've never written a Criminal Minds fic before, but I'm very excited about this one! It's a twist on the traditional MorganxReid AU High School fic that I hope you'll enjoy.

I rated it M, but the smut is in later chapters. For now, there's just swearing and a hint of angst.

Derek Morgan is a new student halfway through Junior year. He's short, skinny, and easy to push around. Spencer Reid is a bored genius facing an existential crisis, and is struggling with his home life.

Let's see what happens when they meet, shall we?

* * *

Bright. The sun was too damn bright, and he knew he'd left his curtains open last night, but at the time he couldn't give a fuck. He liked watching the moon, the way the occasional wispy cloud would tumble and roll across it in slow motion, creating odd shadows on his wall. Spencer cursed the sun, however. Too hot, always too hot; especially here in Nevada where the long days would give way to sweaty evenings, and the dry heat of summer was always a fucking guarantee.

He flung himself out of bed; disabling the alarm before it could wake his mother, and dragged his tired body into the bathroom for a quick, hot shower. That being done, he rubbed his hair briefly with a towel, letting the jaw length tresses hang and curl naturally. He dug around in his sock drawer for a pair of odd socks, and stood in front of his open wardrobe for a long time whilst silently cursing every piece of clothing he owned. Eventually he settled for dark brown cords and an oversized white dress shirt.

Spencer grabbed his much-abused brown leather satchel and made his way to the kitchen. He cursed himself again when he realised he hadn't been shopping for lunch food, which meant he'd have to sit in the cafeteria. Great. Double-checking his funds, and making sure he had his phone, he paced to the front door and slipped on his brown shoes before hesitating.

"I'm leaving, Mom."

It usually took her a while to answer (approximately 23 seconds), but it had now been a little over a minute and Spencer began to sway slightly on the spot.

"Mom?"

Still no response. Spencer bit the inside of his cheek and considered his options. Either his mother was still asleep (not likely), she was ignoring him (even less likely), or she was hurt, somehow. The last option seemed the most viable.

He ditched his bag by the door and hopped up the stairs to Diana's room. Spencer knocked first, cautiously, but entered anyway. The smell hit him right away; she had voided her bowels in the night, and now she was huddled in the farthest point of the room, shivering in her nightdress.

"Hey, Mom, what are you doing on the floor?"

"Oh, Spencer! I'm so sorry; I didn't know what to do and I thought you'd be mad, so I didn't wake you up."

He willed himself to remain strong, but sometimes his mother pushed him to the brink of desperation. He began to pile up the bedclothes, being careful not to touch the soiled areas.

"No, honey, let me do it. It's my fault."

Diana remained in her corner, though, looking much like a scared rabbit. Spencer shook his head.

"Go have a bath; I'll get you some clean sheets."

With shaky legs, his mother stood up. "Thank you Spencer, I don't know what I would do without you. You're such a good boy."

Spencer kept his mouth shut, and forced the tears away. He was going to be late for school, again, and it would be the eighth time this semester. It was only a matter of time before the school would get involved and try to find out why he was late as often as he was. If he could help it, Spencer wanted to delay the school finding out he was a full-time carer. He didn't need help, and he didn't need anybody butting in. For now.

He found fresh sheets in the linen cupboard and made his mother's bed in the time it took her to bathe. Spencer helped her out of the bathroom and made sure she was in a reasonable state of mind to be left home alone.

"I'm fine, Spencer baby. You go on to school. I have some notes to write up before my next class on Tennyson."

He gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, and wished her luck for the class they both knew she wasn't going to. Without looking back, Spencer hopped down the stairs, grabbed his bag, and locked the front door behind him. He unlocked his bike and pedalled away from the house, musing over how much harder it got to do just that every day.

* * *

"Derek, baby, are you _sure_ you don't want me to come in with you, just this once?"

"Ma, I'm a Junior; I'll get my ass handed to me."

Fran Morgan leaned forward to press a kiss to her son's cheek. She smiled at him and cupped his face with a soft hand.

"I'm so proud of you."

Derek rolled his eyes. "I haven't _done _anything yet, Ma."

"I mean about everything; moving house, coming here, the way you handled… well, you know."

Derek's twitch of annoyance dissipated at his mother's emotional, smiling face. He reached for the car door handle and gave one of his trademark cheeky grins.

"Let me give you a reason to be proud."

"That's my boy. Now, if there are any problems, you just let me know, and I'll get in touch with Mr. Gideon and give him a piece of my mind-"

Derek was already halfway out of the door before she began talking, but he cut her off as it slammed home. From the other side of the window he waggled his fingers and blew a kiss before making his way up to the main doors. In the car, Fran shook her head and smiled to herself, before pulling away.

Now that he was actually here, and actually had a locker in this strange new school, it all seemed too _real_. Maybe he'd actually fit in here.

"Hey look, new kid!"

Scratch that. Before he had a chance to look around, he was slammed into the row of lockers beside him, and by sheer bad luck, his head connected with one of the combination locks. He knew the original hit was intentional, though, and his fears were confirmed as he watched three jocks high-fiving each other and laughing as they walked away. He rubbed the rapidly forming bruise on his head and squinted as the fluorescent lights were suddenly just too bright.

"Douchebags."

"Sorry, what?"

A vision dressed in pink stood before him; a curvy blonde with pink horn-rimmed glasses and high platform shoes. She grinned at him before noticing the welt on his forehead.

"Oh, honey, let me see that."

She pursed her fuchsia lips in concentration as she poked gently around the area. Derek flinched the tiniest bit when she withdrew her hand and reached into her bag. She pulled out a mini first-aid kit and dug around for a band aid.

"Hmm, I only have Hello Kitty ones left… you wouldn't want one of those, would you?"

Derek shook his head and winced. "No… thank you. I'm sorry, who are you?"

"My name's Penelope Garcia, sweetie. Some of my friends call me Garcia, others call me Penny or Pen; it's entirely up to you."

Derek frowned for a split second as he wondered _why _this girl was being so nice to him right from the off. Her open, warm face was enough to dispel these fears, though, and he beamed right back.

"I'm Derek Morgan; call me whatever floats your boat."

"Well aren't you a gorgeous chocolate treat when you smile, hmm? You should do that more often, Derek, honey, it's positively heartbreaking!"

Derek smiled again, more nervously this time, and gestured to his head. "It doesn't look too bad?"

Penelope shook her head emphatically. "Oh no; they didn't even break the skin; you'll have a big bruise tomorrow, but for now you look divine."

He nodded in thanks, and looked around the corridor in a slight panic as it began to fill up.

"What do you have first?"

"Uhhh, Physics, I think?"

"With Mr. Hotchner?

"Yeah…"

Penelope grabbed Derek's arm and pulled him in the appropriate direction. They navigated the hallway with relative ease, and slipped into the classroom just before the bell.

"Wonderful timing, as ever, from Penelope Garcia." She said more or less to herself, and took a seat at the side of the room. She gestured to the desk immediately next to hers, and Derek sat down, feeling very out of place.

More students filled the room, and each one looked at Derek with what he felt to be mild hostility, and yet, that was utterly ridiculous. Just his paranoid mind playing tricks, or at least, this was how he tried to reassure himself.

A tall, brooding man with a heavy brow stepped into the room, and just for a second, Derek was nervous. That was until a smile broke on the man's face, and his friendly face swept the room.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late; some dick parked his car in my spot and I had to get security involved… it didn't turn out great for him. Oh, and Anderson? _Please_ don't call me Hotch in the hallways, because people tend to get the wrong impression."

Derek turned to look at Anderson, who had flushed crimson and was currently waving his hand in a lame apology.

"What else… ah! Yes, we have a new student today, if I'm not mistaken?"

Twenty pairs of eyes found Derek within a few seconds, and it made him start to shake. Why Mr. Hotchner had to draw everyone's attention to him, he wasn't sure, but God, all he wanted to do now was melt into the floor.

"Yes, sir, uhm, I'm Derek Morgan."

"Ah, welcome, Derek. Come up here and tell us a little about yourself. I'm Mr. Hotchner, but in this room, you can call me Hotch."

Derek rose slowly and made his way to the front. He turned and saw Penelope stick both her thumbs up by way of reassurance, and it made him smile. He felt much more confident, and opened his mouth to begin.

The door flew open. Both Derek and Hotch jumped at the sheer ferocity, and a skinny kid with brown, messy hair came in and strode to an empty desk in the back of the room.

Hotch put his serious face back on. "Reid, this is, what, the fifth-"

"Eighth."

"Alright, the _eighth_ time you've been late this semester. The school is going to have to get involved at some point, you know. This can't keep happening."

"I'm working on it."

Derek watched as Reid dumped his bag on the desk, pulling out random pieces of stationary and letting them clatter around. Finally, he sat down and regarded Derek with a measured stare, as if waiting for him to slip up. It was somewhat disconcerting.

Hotch gestured for him to begin, and the other students focused fully on his agonizing embarrassment.

"I, uh, I'm… Derek. I come from Chicago, but I moved here a week ago with my Mom and two sisters. My aim is to finish school, then maybe go to college, but ultimately I want to go back to Chicago PD and be a cop. I'd also like to try out for the football team-"

"Good luck with that one, Pipsqueak."

A group of jocks at the back of the classroom guffawed at their friend's outburst and one or two even clapped. Hotch silenced them with a glare, and turned to Derek.

"I'll put in a word with Coach LaMontagne for you; he could probably train you in his spare time."

Derek nodded his thanks, and went to sit back down. Reid's eyes followed him all the way back to his seat; he could feel the gaze on the side of his head like it was burning, and suddenly the desire to play football just melted away. The jocks were right; he was too short, and too skinny.

The lesson was mainly focused on Astronomy, which was a welcome break for Derek, since he didn't think he could cope much with equations on his first day.

"For starters, who can quickly give me an approximation of how close we are to the Sun?"

The students stared blankly back at Hotch, who sighed.

"Reid?"

"Hmm?"

"You got an answer for me?"

Derek looked across at Reid, who rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "The earth's orbit around the sun is slightly elliptical, so the distance between the earth and the sun varies throughout the year. At its nearest point, the earth is 91,445,000 miles from the sun. This point in the earth's orbit is known as perihelion, and it occurs on January 3. The earth is farthest away from the sun on July 4 when it is 94,555,000 miles away. This point in the earth's orbit is called aphelion."

"Thank you, Reid. A little less sass next time, maybe?"

Reid just looked at the notebook on his desk, raised an eyebrow, and doodled absently.

Meanwhile, Derek's jaw had hit the floor. He turned to Penelope who held up a finger in a gesture to wait a minute, and then slid a note onto his desk. It simply read _'he's a genius, babe'_, but that didn't really explain it, not totally. The kid hadn't even been reading that out of a _book_.

The rest of the lesson was uneventful, save for Reid's repeatedly forced input when nobody else could or would answer a question. He seemed more aggravated each time, and Derek didn't notice one person trying to smile at him, much less speak to him.

When the lesson ended, Reid left before anybody else had a chance to pack up their things. As Derek put his pencil case away, he noticed Hotch lean over to say something quietly to the skinny boy before he left the room. His face was still set with that concerned parent look, and Reid shook his head in response to whatever he had to say.

Penelope was disappointed to learn they had the next couple of lessons away from each other, but Derek enjoyed the classes all the same. Math was his strength; Gym, not so much, but he gave it a damn good go anyway. Nobody could say he wasn't determined, and this was something the jocks were determined to pick him up on in the changing rooms.

"Hey, Morgan, is it? You wanna be on the team, huh?"

It was the same guy who had interrupted him in Physics. He was also now flanked by two equally threatening members of the team. Derek shrugged in a non-committal way, since he didn't want to start an argument.

"You think you got what it takes?"

The boy was now approaching; shirtless and obviously confident in being that way. Derek decided to ignore him for as long as possible.

"Hey, short-ass; I'm talkin' to you."

"Bro, maybe you should leave him alone."

"Maybe you should _shut up,_ Jay, before I ring your Mama and tell her where you were the other night, hmm?"

He turned back to Derek, who was now frozen to the spot. This guy wasn't gonna let up anytime soon.

"I… just thought I would give it a shot, that's all."

The jock smiled; managing to show all his teeth in what could only be a threatening sign of animosity.

"Let me give you some friendly advice; don't. Just don't, alright? We got a championship-winning team this year, and we don't need kids like you screwing it up, okay?"

Resigned, Derek showed his hands in a gesture of surrender and took a step back. He didn't want a fight, especially one he didn't have a hope in hell of winning.

"Alright, I won't. I got it."

"Good. Don't let me see you around; you're already starting to piss me off."

Anger boiled in Derek's stomach. How the fuck could he be pissing this guy off? With his existence? It made no sense at all, and yet, he kept his mouth shut. Like a coward. Yeah, his mother would be so damn proud of that.

Thankfully, it was lunch time. He didn't feel like finding Penelope, though, so he looked around the school for a quiet place to sit and be alone for a while. He hoped it wouldn't be the start of a habit; Derek actually wanted friends this time around.

* * *

After a hellishly dull morning, Spencer retreated to the only place in the school he felt comfortable. It was a low, flat roof above the Science department that overlooked the playing fields at the back of the school, and nobody ever disturbed him here. Not that they would ever come looking.

The sun was thankfully moving behind him, and the higher roof behind ensured he was cast in an almost permanent slice of shade; perfect for this lunchtime solitude. There was a light breeze, pleasant, but not strong enough to extinguish the flame of his lighter as he lit a cigarette. Spencer took a deep drag, letting the nicotine soothe him, and just for a moment, he had not a care in the world. The endless words in his head blurred like ink on a wet page, and he closed his eyes as the stress washed away.

"Hi."

Spencer cracked open one eye, and was more than a little annoyed to see the new kid gawking up at him.

"Hi, Derek Morgan from Chicago."

"Mind if I come up?"

_Yes_. "No, just don't expect great company."

Derek shrugged and clambered up with some effort; he was shorter than Spencer, and his legs didn't quite have the same reach. Finally, after much grunting, he was settled a few feet away from him, watching as he took lazy drags on the cigarette.

"Those things eventually kill you, you know."

Spencer felt another twinge of annoyance. "Oh, thanks. I'm aware that cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds; over 400 of which are toxic, and just one of these can stiffen my arteries, but I can't bring myself to care."

Derek cocked his head at him, but didn't say a word. He didn't seem overly impressed or put off by this outburst, which only served to grate on him more. He wanted a reaction.

"Why are you here?"

"Penelope tells me you're a genius."

"Who?"

"Penelope Garcia. The curvy blonde in Physics?"

Spencer nodded in recognition. Everybody knew, so this wasn't news to him. He stubbed out the cigarette and flicked the stub over the side of the roof.

"Are you?"

"We're on fragmented sentences, now?"

Derek sighed at him; finally, he was getting a response. "Are you a genius?"

"Well I have an eidetic memory and an IQ of 187. That qualifies me as a genius; so yes, I suppose."

He noticed the other boy was slack-jawed, and he felt quite smug. People often made an effort to sneer at him when told this privileged information. Envy was the worst of the seven sins, in his opinion.

"That's cool."

"Is it?"

"What do you mean?"

Spencer sighed and cracked his knuckles. This kid was getting on his nerves; he certainly wasn't that intelligent, and he began to feel like he was wasting his time.

"There's a lot of pressure. I remember everything, Morgan. Every word that was ever written to me in a snide text, e-mail, or note dropped on my desk. I wish I could forget it all, sometimes. And then there's the entire adult population, who seem to think that I'll suddenly stand up and write the cure for cancer or world hunger on the whiteboard. There are so many… expectations. I've already been moved up a grade; they wanted to move me up further but… I couldn't. I can't."

"Why?"

Spencer just looked at Derek. _Really_ looked, for the first time since he sat down. He wasn't being stupid, as such. He was being inquisitive, like a toddler might be the first time he sees ants building a nest, or a plane taking flight. He wasn't used to the undivided attention, so he closed up, and changed the subject of conversation to Derek. He lit another cigarette.

"What brings you to Nevada?"

He watched Derek's eyebrows knit together as he realised Spencer had avoided his previous question. Not wanting to push further, he sighed and shifted so his legs were crossed.

"Change of scenery," he said, and nothing more. He stared at the ground, and Spencer watched as his face scrunched up in admission of defeat.

He may be socially awkward, but Spencer knew the end of a conversation when it smacked him in the face. He looked away and closed his eyes once more, puffing on the carcinogenic mixture of tar, nicotine and particulates that did such a good job of helping him wind down.

Neither boy said another word for the rest of lunch, and when the warning bell rang, each shuffled away in opposite directions, with nothing more than a nod and a mumbled 'bye' on Derek's part.

It was enough for now.

* * *

[A/N]: What did you think? I'll continue with it if you enjoyed this chapter, so please let me know! Thank you!


End file.
